Out of all the places we visited in Taiwan so far, I think Yang Ming Shan National Park (陽明山國家公園) has to be my favourite. Maybe it was because of the really cold air or the cherry blossoms (though sparse) or the fact that we got so lost up there that all added up to one hilariously memorable trip up the mountains. We took a shuttle bus from Taipei Main Station and the journey up was an extremely gripping one as we had to stand and there were so many sudden swerves and turns.
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| Food stop to recover from our gripping bus ride. |
As we went in January, there weren't a lot of fully bloomed cherry blossoms. But they were enough for us city kids to swoon over them.
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| This is probably the first time I saw cherry blossoms. |
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| Pink or Red? Or somewhere in between? |
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| A very happy old man. |
What the photos don't show is us freezing our asses off, our clothing weren't thick enough and it started drizzling halfway. We wanted to trek our way to Zhuizi-Hu (竹子湖) but upon reaching that area we couldn't find the way to the entrance or junction and we eventually decided to take a bus back.
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| It was rather foggy and almost eerie. |
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| No idea where we are at this point. |
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| This is the point where we finally accepted that we are lost. |
We met an old man while we waited for the bus back to Taipei Main Station and he praised us Singaporean students for being smart. If only he knew how we spent the last hour wandering around very much lost..
On our fifth day, we went to Wulai (烏來) , which is famous for their waterfall and hot springs. We had to walk quite a far bit uphill to get to the waterfall, but at least the temperature was low which kept us cool and calm.
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| Heading towards the main streets of Wulai. |
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| An outdoor cafe located near the tram station. |
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| The tram station |
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| No standing on tracks. |
We had rather high expectations of the Wulai waterfall and had expected to be greeted by a really grand and majestic landscape. The waterfall is surprisingly small and narrow, and we could only view it from quite a distance, which is a bummer. The tungsten film I used is probably what caused the pink sky in the photo below, I think it makes the photo look almost comical.
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| Celestial intervention from the clouds above? |
On our second last day, we went to Shifen (十分) and then Jiufen (九份). In order to get there, we had to do a train transfer at Ruifang station.
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| We watched the lady finish her lunch as we waited. |
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| There are a couple of cute shops in Shifen. |
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| Fresh Chinese pastries on sale. |
Visitors are allowed to take photos and walk along the railway tracks in Shifen, just be sure to look out for the trains!
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| Just a train heading our way. |
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| And then it's gone. |
We then bought a sky lantern (天燈) for NT150 and proceeded to write some of our wishes and aspirations on them. I am not sure what is the significance of writing your wishes and then setting them free to catch on fire though, it seems oddly strange to reduce your wishes to ashes, no? Or maybe it symbolises sending our wishes to Heaven, in hope that they are granted. It is still fun to watch them float away though.
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| Guess who wrote this? |
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| Very neat calligraphy. |
After we released our sky lantern, we headed to Jiufen via the train. We met these two university students from China and they told us about their student life there. They told us that they have to take 40 modules a year and each school day last at least 8-12 hours. If I'm not wrong, they took compulsory English lessons too and they are both part of the school's newspaper/magazine team. They seem to be a very hard working and humble pair and they kind of put us Singaporeans students to shame.
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| The two hardworking students we met on board. |
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| Hold on to the handrail, dude. |
After a while, we reached Jiufen Old Street (九份老街), the quaint and retro old streets which inspired the movie "Spirited Away". There are plenty of small steps and slopes along the streets, which makes it really easy to trip if one is distracted. There are a lot of small shops there selling tea, souvenirs and snacks. One of the must try there is the taro balls (芋圓) in red bean soup.
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| The streets and paths are rather narrow. |
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| There are a lot of tea houses there. |
We visited other places in Taipei of course, we went to Wufenpu and Ximending to shop and we went to a night market every night, including Shilin and Shida nightmarket. But I did not really take much photos of those places, except those taken by my iPhone.
This is a list of the places that we went to ( I might have missed out some):
Day 1 (Kaohsiung): Kaohsiung Harbour, Pier 2 Art District, Takao Railway Museum, Love River and Liuhe Night Market.
Day 2 (Kaohsiung): Cijin Island, Dome of Light at Formasa Boulevard Station and Ruifang Night market.
Day 3 (Taipei): Melange Cafe, Wufenpu and Raohe Night Market.
Day 4 (Taipei): Yang Ming Shan, Yong Kang Street and Shilin Night Market.
Day 5 (Taipei): Wulai, Ximending and Gongguan Night Market.
Day 6 (Taipei): Shifen, Jiufen and Shida Night Market.
Day 7 (Taipei): Shops around Taipei Main Station and Wufenpu.
I really enjoyed our trip there and I have to give kudos to Xl and Gel for planning the very detailed itinerary! If only we had more time to spend there, we would not have to rush from one place to another and could have spent more time exploring the streets and relaxing in their cafes. I should have brought my digital camera too, so that I can document all the amazing food we ate there. Maybe next time!
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